North Korea: On the net in world's most secretive nation - BBC story.

[mikedt]

Wasn't sure of whether to post this in the Lounge or Computers.

An interesting BBC story that gives an insight into computers, software and the internet in North Korea.

BBC News - North Korea: On the net in world's most secretive nation

"Anyone logging on at the cafe would find themselves at a computer that isn't running Windows, but instead Red Star - North Korea's own custom-built operating system, reportedly commissioned by the late Kim Jong-il himself.

A pre-installed readme file explains how important it is that the operating system correlates with the country's values.

The computer's calendar does not read 2012, but 101 - the number of years since the birth of Kim Il-sung, the country's former leader whose political theories define policy decisions.

The Red Star operating system, used by computers in North Korea, is built on Linux, the popular open source software used by many in the wider world. Its introduction music is believed to be based on a classic Korean folk song, Arirang."

China has been developing her own Linux based OSs as well. There was Red Flag OS, and now I believe there's an Ubuntu derived one in the works now.

 

[sfbloodbrother]

Linux is very popular in other countries than America. I am not sure why, probably companies are doing what they can to remove them from the shelves, but I know in China that Ubuntu is made up of about 30% of the computers or something like that.

But a country can do what they want with Linux. If one country believes in one thing, and want's its computers like that, and it makes everyone happy then there is nothing wrong with that. However, if these operating systems are evil, and taking data from everyone, and used for bad things then they should not be created.

 

[mikedt]

Linux is very popular in other countries than America. I am not sure why, probably companies are doing what they can to remove them from the shelves, but I know in China that Ubuntu is made up of about 30% of the computers or something like that.

China from what I've seen and gather is pretty much mostly Windows XP at the moment, often pirated as well. But I'm sure the eventual intention of the government is to become self sufficient, and not dependant on foreign corporations for OSs and software. Microsoft does give full co-operation to the communist government, with specific PRC versions of their software, like Skype. Which is monitored and censored. They were originally developing Red Flag OS, which seems to be pretty much abandoned now. So instead the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology in Beijing is now working with Canonical to produce a version of Ubuntu specific to China, which has just been released, UbuntuKylin. Chinese manufacturers already do very much their own thing with Android, there's very little to do with Google at all, apart from the source code.

I'm sure the eventual intention of Canonical is to become dominant here and monetise Ubuntu. I'm starting to see quite a few "Designed for Ubuntu" laptops in the stores now. Some of which do come with Ubuntu, rather than Windows 7 Home Basic.

But a country can do what they want with Linux. If one country believes in one thing, and want's its computers like that, and it makes everyone happy then there is nothing wrong with that. However, if these operating systems are evil, and taking data from everyone, and used for bad things then they should not be created.

Pyongyang is a law unto itself, and anything the "Supreme Leader" decides, goes. Microsoft has no presence there AFAICT, due to export restrictions and trade embargoes. If they want to make an OS and software, where the calendar only works for Kim Il-sung's birthday, or proclaims that the west is decadent and imperialist, that's what they do. There's nothing anyone else can do about it, because it's all open source software.

 

[dan330]

it feel really bad for the citizens of such countries.


the black and white difference between the North and South in quality of life... is almost unbelievable.